Travels of the Scorpion Sorcerer
by darkangelmanz
Summary: The interference of 16 wizards in the world of Azeroth will change the history of the Third War. The Burning Legion will be stopped at any cost. Set during the Reign of Chaos storyline.
1. Chapter 1 First Contact

CHAPTER 1

A giant wolf was silently prowling the underbrush. He never let his immense size affect his stealth skills. Only recently he came to this rich land with so many sources of food. The others avoided the place, but he chose to go nonetheless. Hunting in the area was very easy. The local animals did not know how to detect him before it was too late. At least that's what happened to the yeanling he killed two sleeps ago.

His target was quietly chewing on the grass, the perfect prey. The adult doe was so far unconcerned. He didn't feel anything for the doe. It was only a piece of meat for him to consume later. The place he should aim for is just below the neck. That would take four leaps for him to reach now. He crept closer still for three leaps is all he wanted. That would give him the kill.

He was a few steps away from three leaps when the doe's head suddenly shot upwards. It seemed to look at him … or not … it looked a bit to his left. He stilled completely. Now he let his instincts take over. He let out a small growl as he let his body accelerate to its maximum in an instant. In a single leap he covered more than a quarter of the doe immediately ran, to his left. He chased after her with quick leaps. Second and he lands in front of the spot the doe was looking at. He barely registered a heavy pressure in the air, but ignored everything for the doe. As soon as his legs kicked off the ground, he noticed a glowing green ball of energy in his flight path. He instinctively tried to close his mouth around the ball, but something painful originated in his body very quickly.

His balance out, he landed awkwardly and lost the momentum. He knew the doe was out of his reach, but decided to run after her nonetheless. He made a few more strides and then completely gave up on it. His insides hurt more and more. He found a quiet nook and laid down to let the pain pass. It was morning time, but maybe a nap would be good.

The wolf closed his eyes, never to open them again. The pain originated from the burn he made from the plasma-like hot green ball of energy. It cooked his insides. His kidneys were coal black, stomach was burned through, and skin singed at the rear.

The glowing green ball of energy dimmed considerably with the passing of the wolf, but soon regained its green glow. It became brighter and expanded out almost touching the ground. At two and a half meters in height, it stopped expanding and hovered in place. Three unremarkable birds passed through and then flew back in. Two minutes later four men came out in light flowing green wear. They quickly looked around the small clearing and then started talking.

"There's no sign of whatever tried to stop the portal, Nev" came the voice of a man of medium height.

"I see nothing either, Blaise." the tall blond said.

"I see a previous heat signature that passed through this place. Looks to have been within the last five minutes. Can be animal or man. I don't know." the man with an almost femininely beautiful face said.

"Colin, tell the others we are all clear for now. I'll check the signatures meanwhile" the blond man, Neville, said to the feminine one.

Colin stepped back through the portal to a richly furnished room of large proportions. This is something they've been working on for several years. Twenty meters wide and covered in hieroglyphs and runes of different styles and languages, this room enjoyed the input of several billion galleons. The metallic circle supporting the portal played the role of a platform for him to step through and tell the others:

"It's clear in there. Everything is under control. Unit five, move in." Colin could easily handle any nervousness he had. He was a proud father of a great son. He handled more stressful situations than entry into a different universe. Turning around, he felt the unit move behind him. The others spread around him quickly. Funnily enough, the passage through the portal was nothing spectacular. It only was an intangible veil that blocked his vision that would disappear as soon as he crossed.

The leader in the back working along with the others took a look at his creation. It was a relatively new design. Travelling between worlds had been made easier and safer by him and his team. No matter how much Tiamat said her creations were perfect, even she admitted the efficiency of his device.

Everything was checked and rechecked about forty times at the least before the first jolt of power was sent through the machine. That day his goal of the last three years came to life. Quick strides led him towards the portal, his wife and confidante at his side. His equal, his love, his life, Xiana was everything he wanted. She was the one for whom he turned away riches unknown to man, glory only slightly imaginable. Just so he could be her lifemate in soul and body. He led her to the portal and made the first step.

Harry stepped through the portal. He came up to see a defensive formation by his entourage. Fourteen members of the Scorpion Army positioned themselves around the portal.

The world that greeted them was lush and green. There was a forest around them with many familiar and normal trees growing. They emerged in a small clearing inside the forest.

As Harry looked back, he saw an exceedingly large tree looming behind the portal. It must have been a kilometer high, if not more. The trunk was incredibly thick, about 60-70 meters in diameter.

Then he felt it, the strong magical resonance in the air. Now that he started paying attention to it, he felt a very strong magical field. This was very much unlike Earth, where magic was very thin in the air. Here it was thick and alive. He felt the magic inside of him respond to it with notes that made him distinctly happy.

"Do you feel it? Do you feel the magic?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it's beautiful! I never felt so much magic in one place, not even in the Lair," said Xiana, who stepped through the portal before him.

"I agree. We should spread out." Harry commanded. "Brooms out and lets go near that tree."

As one, they took out their brooms and mounted up. They rose to a height 10 meters above the trees, which were about 15-20 meters each. They flew in the formations of diamond shape, with one man leading, two diagonally behind the first to either side and the last behind the first one.

Harry set a comfortable pace to the tree. They reached it in only 5 minutes, but they had time to look around the area in the meantime. This seemed to be a forest completely untouched by any civilization. Everything here was absolutely natural. There was a small pond two hundred meters away and an antlered animal started running about 400 meters away.

Harry took all of this in, especially a humanoid silhouette standing on the top of a faraway hill.

"I see a contact!" Harry yelled out to his team. He switched to the intercommunication device. "Turn left sixty degrees. Only a half a klick away."

"Yes, I see him."

"Understood"

The replies were all done over the intercom.

As they flew close, they landed about a hundred meters in front of him and approached on foot. Of course every one of them set a personal shield over themselves. They could not assume that the intentions of the stranger could only be benign.

As they approached him, they saw that he had the most distinct purple skin and long ears. Those ears were longer than even those of house elves. They all made sure to have relaxed and positive facial expressions.

The other man was about 6 feet tall with a well built body. His features were handsome and his eyes shone from within. He had a bow slung across his chest and a quiver of arrows on his back. There was a dagger in a sheath by his right hip and a small axe strapped to his left calf. The clothes he wore looked looked well made, but they were clearly medieval. There were two wrist sheaths that were finely crafted. Also a full pouch was hanging from his belt.

The purple man started speaking in his own tongue, most probably in greeting. The language seemed to be flowing and very beautiful. Unfortunately Harry could not understand him. Harry showed by hand signals that he could not communicate well. He pointed to his mouth and spoke a few words of greeting and shook his head. He then pointed to his head, said aloud "Talk with mind" and sent a mental communication to the purple man. The mental message read:

"Hello. My name is Harry Potter. We come from a different world. Can you understand me?"

The beautiful thing about mental communication is that it did not have language barriers. The purple man looked confused for a moment, then a large smile broke on his face. He nodded and sent a surprisingly well constructed mental message.

"Greetings to you, stranger Potter. My name is Lonius Whiteraven. What brings you to our world?"

"I am coming here because I'm looking for a beautiful world to explore. I'm a scientist and an explorer and I have seen most of what my world offers to explorers. I'm a wizard and I can make my stay here worth your while." Harry replied.

"Do not worry, stranger. The food is plentiful this time of year and I am curious about your group here. Come to my village two hours that way," the other man replied calmly.

"Thank you, Lonius" Harry sent.

"Team, this man is Lonius Whiteraven. He wants us to come to his village. It's supposed to take about two hours.

During the trip the long eared man introduced his race as KalDorei, or children of the stars. Others knew them as Night Elves. They had a long history filled with strife and tragedies. They possessed infinitely long lives and were blessed so by the goddess Elune.

The man himself turned out to be a hunter. He had been looking out for a predator that recently appeared in the area. His people took a vow in the ancient times to keep this area free of any carnivores.

Harry shared the history of his people. He told the hunter of the vast magical world in his dimension, of millions of magical users and of the billions of nonmagicals. Population in his dimension neared 8 billion sentient beings. The world lived in an age of peace for the last decade. Harry specifically left out any comments that would let Lonilus see how powerful he and his group were. He explained the wars of the magicals, the great conflict of the Vampires. After that, he told him of the uniting of the two major worlds on his planet –magical and non-magical.

Lonius was impressed with the tales that the stranger was sending him. The elf never heard of the commodities those mundanes came up with. Twenty minutes later Harry was finished with a general overview of his world. He then sent a request to see into Lonius' mind and extract the Darnassian language. He sent a mild invisible compulsion charm as well. He did not need to deal with unwanted resistance from the elf. So they stopped and Harry quickly explained what he was doing to the rest of the group. Harry looked deeply into the eyes of the elf and they stayed still. Fifteen minutes later the elf started moving around naturally, but Harry stayed that way for 4 more minutes. Then he looked into each the eyes of each of his friends and they each looked at each other for 5 minutes, while the memories were transferring. They started spreading the information virally. Each one pitched in to the transfers as soon as they were able. At the end they all had a lunch and after a 30 minute rest, moved on.

By this time, every one of them learned Darnassian. So they all talked freely with the hunter. The trip afterwards turned out to be much livelier with Lonilus telling stories of his people to all of the travellers this time. They were going south towards the outpost and reached it within the hour.

They were not met warmly. The village had a translator that started speaking to them in an unfamiliar language. Most probably this was the language spoken by humans of this world. The facial expressions of everyone were very guarded, so Harry felt a touch nervous when he started talking in Darnassian.

"Good evening, noble watchers of Nordrassil. I come to you for a visit from a different world."


	2. Chapter 2 Settling in

**CHAPTER 2**

AN:This is a filler chapter that has been written in a hurry. I made this project just to write some battle scenes, and now I'm tying this all into a story. The next chapter will feature the battle with the orcs.

To say that the night elves were bewildered would be an overstatement. The Kaldorei were a learned society. They had seen a lot of what this world had to offer them. With their long lifespans, individual Night Elves remembered days two millennia before, or some even remembered events ten millennia before. This magical party that came recently was no big surprise. There were portals being opened every century or so and new faces like the wizards came in for short periods. Thankfully, these wizards did not ask for much.

Only several people at a time were busy entertaining them. The wizards went around like scientists making note of majority of things. They asked questions on many topics, including diet, architecture, economy, smithing, Elune, history, local games and entertainment and many many others. Most of the time nobody minded them asking the questions, since thankfully they had tact and knew how to speak comfortably with others.

Within four weeks, the wizards learned most of the things needed to comfortably hold an educated conversation with them. In return, the foreigners showed them how they use their magic. No blessing from Elune was needed in this magic. The wizards had most of their magic centred around construction, comfort and entertainment. It was funny to see that for the ever battle ready race like the Night Elves.

The wizards were useful though. In the four weeks, they graciously made eight hundred ever burning torches that would last for a century, or so the wizards told. They could be used to start fires or just as lighting and the handles would never burn. This went in opposition to all truths the night elves knew about burning wood, but the wizards just gave a simple and succinct answer: "Magic"

In a short while, the magical party asked Lonius where they could go next. He advised them to go South. The Ashenvale forest would be in two days` travel. On the southern side is where their Demigod Cenarius was last seen. In the Kaldorei culture, nothing they built was worth as much as the presence of their demigod. Harry understood that seeing as these people knew the real name of their God and could have a chance to see their demigod. Some, like Lonilus, got the chance, while most of the others didn't.

Soon came the night when the wizards would leave the premises of the village. Blaise had the brilliant idea to put on a fireworks show for the locals. Colin and Blaise worked for three hours on the missiles and proper sequencing of the explosions. The show turned out to be a hit with the night elves. They had never seen this type of entertainment. While some had complained that the blasts were hurting their ears, the majority just took in the sights and the music that was played with them.

As soon as the morning came, the humans left the village at a leisurely pace to the south. Thanks to the brooms, the two day trip turned into a two hour flight at a very comfortable speed. They were not worried or in a big alert. The sights were breathtaking. Even while a lot of sentient beings lived in the area, nothing was polluted.

Sadly, this was still very different from the way it was back home. Harry knew that no matter how much effort he spent on his world, no amount of healing in his lifetime would restore the virgin beauty of the planet Earth.

As they were getting ready to take their first break in the flight and cool off in the shade, Xiana noticed a small settlement of night elves to the left of their path. Within ten minutes, they were landing a short distance away from the settlement. They now had a considerable amount of knowledge on the locals. Harry had no illusions, every settlement of night elves had heard about them. They were travellers who had shown only a benevolent side. The long lived race of Kaldorei would expect the other shoe to drop as well at some point, and wanted to be prepared for it. Not that the wizards had any intention of being hostile to the locals, but they understood the risk they presented.

The settlement turned out to be a Sentinel base of Astranaar. It had a very different feel to it from ... The local people were dressed in light revealing armor and there was a definitely strong military presence in the town. Elves met them with drawn bows, but thankfully no notched arrows.

Fortunately the wizards defused the situation by speaking in Darnassian, even if it was spoken with a heavy accent to the elves. Greetings and gifts appeased the elves and they allowed the wizards shelter. Thankfully the wizards brought their own lodgings, so were not a burden to the elves. The wizards quickly settled in and asked to see Cenarius.

The honored teacher was in camp at the time to gather the eleven information regarding the increased furbolg activity in the past month. The mighty centaur was indifferent to the newcomers. He had no real desire to speak to anybody and the corruption spreading at the eastern edge of Kalimdor had him in a hurry.

The wizards have proven interesting when they showed the flexibility of their magic. Now Cenarius was a being of nature, a demi-god. He understood the value of genetics, even if the night elves he conversed with did not. He could use the abilities in this world. The wizards had already stated that they planned to go back to their world at the year's end.

Harry was sitting down with Cenarius talking about the war of the ancients when a sentinel ran into the camp. She was in panic and that rarely happens to these strong women. Cenarius headed in her direction and asked what happened to cause such stress.

She told him of the green skinned menace that started to tear down trees. The sentinels tried to stop those orcs from ruining the Ashenvale forest. They took heavy casualties when the fights began, but only a few of the greenskins fell. There were about three hundred orcs in that area, but they were very hard to kill.

Harry had heard enough. He immediately volunteered to take care of those orcs. He had fifteen fully rested capable wizards and witches available and the elves deserved a great gift for their hospitality.

Cenarius gave his permission to Harry. Cenarius would be keeping a force not far away though. He had to be sure that the Green Skinned Orcs were eradicated from this forest forever. Harry agreed that this was the correct course for the elves to take.

Harry sent out the message through the network to summon all the scorpion sorcerers. In fifteen minutes they were all gathered in a circle outside the main camp. Harry told them that they would be assaulting a fortified position that evening. They were to avoid the use of lethal curses, for they would be taking prisoners.

An hour later the Scorpion Army flew off the ground and headed south in search of the orc encampment. The orcs turned out to be fifty kilometers south of the main encampment. It was dark by then, so the burning fire of the orc camp was clear and easy to see. Harry led his team to circle the encampment and memorized the layout of the place.


	3. Chapter 3 Orc Subjugation

Chapter 3: Orc Subjugation

AN: Here we have the first 'action' of the story.

Tracks from orc wagons signified a recent passage of orcs in the area. The wizarding group landed in the open field with many orc tracks. There were some more recent tracks, but those were made by local wildlife, rather than the orc stampede.

The evening sun was approaching the horizon as Blaise scouted the field for any orc presence. The sound of orcs felling trees was audible even almost two kilometers away, but the wizards had to dispatch of the outlying groups of patrols. Blaise saw Harry and Colin signal the sighting of separate orc patrols, and quickly went to join them.

The plan was not overly complicated. They had the superior mobility and powers, at least individually. They planned to isolate and overpower orc forces in small numbers. Then they would portkey them to prison cells.

Each one of them was responsible for construction of twenty-five prison cells. The bars were 5 cm thick and each cell had the standard 2*2 meter dimensional build. All cells then were connected to each other, so that the shocks that the orcs put out on the bars would be absorbed by the whole structure, rather than the cells alone. The roof system of interconnected shock absorbers allowed for this innovation to take hold. Four hundred cells were constructed within two hours, and a portkey was made for each cell.

The wizards were overestimating the enemy purposely, just to be on the safe side. The estimates that the wizards came up with counted only about two hundred fifty to three hundred enemies. The wizards made some extras in case they missed a part of the enemy forces. With all the preparations ready and a light mana potion consumed by each one of them, the wizards were ready to start the attack on the orcs.

Blaise joined with the rest of the team and joined the almost silent council on how to proceed. They all agreed on the strongest stunning spells. With that in mind, the ambushing wizards disillusioned, masked their scent and approached the incoming orc patrol.

The orcs had no idea that anything was amiss, the trolls with them were making lewd jokes on the captured night elves. Just the previous night they had the pleasure to feel the thrill of battle coursing through their veins, yet this night was proving very boring.

With that thought in mind, the leading orc did not notice the glow that quickly surrounded his subordinates and himself. Half a second later, before he could fully process the significance of what was happening, he lost his consciousness.

The wizards let go of the breath they were holding. The spell worked exactly how they wanted it to. The effects were slightly unpredictable when they were dealing with a race as biologically different as orcs, but the contingencies they had in place were fortunately not needed. They threw ten portkeys and watched as the orcs quickly vanished. The first prisoners were in place. The night elves would look after them until the wizards returned.

The second patrol that evening to come through the site was overcome just as silently, bringing the number of captured orcs to twenty two. Then came the hunt for orcs. The grunts who were chopping down lumber even in the dying light of the evening, started vanishing very quickly. Capturing them proved to be very easy, so the wizards concentrated on them first.

By the end of the first half hour of the hunt, all the lumber workers were captured, bringing the total number of captured orcs and trolls to one hundred and twelve. They only completed the easiest portion of the mission.

Grunt and troll patrols were more frequent now. The outer patrols were being captured still, but the inner patrols were also now being targeted. The standard patrol strength of seven grunts and three spear trolls was present in all eight outside parties. The inner patrolling parties consisted of five trolls, twelve grunts, three Raiders and one shaman.

They required a bit of a change of tactics through. Since they orcs had the superior numbers, they could not be all cursed at the same time. The wizards addressed the issue within 2 minutes of discussion.

A silencing bubble would be erected in the path of the approaching patrols, about forty meters in diameter. The prerogative in the mission was in maintaining secrecy of their advance.

As soon as the prey would be within the bubble, the hits would occur on the first fifteen targets. The hunting party made sure to include everyone but the grunts in the first salvo. The six other grunts that were left grabbed their hanging axes and charged with mighty war cries. Sadly for them, they were simply banished away from the wizards, and while they were getting up, they were stunned as well. The group was eventually portkeyed out and the dome of silence dissipated.

The same procedure was repeated on the other three patrols. Some proved crafty, some were just overcome with shock. In the end none of them made a squeak outside the silencing bubble.

The main group was starting to take notice of the building silence in the night. It was already fifty minutes after sundown and the camp was steadily growing quieter. The leader orc, whom Harry could see, sent out a scouting force of thirty grunts going in three directions.

Scorpion army captured the orcs and placed them under imperius curses to come back saying that everyone was taking a break. The leader had no idea of the existence of such curses as imperio, so accepted the reports and went back to command tent with an uneasy feeling.

When Grom Hellscream got the negative answer, he entertained the idea that it could be just his imagination. Unfortunately for the wizards, Hellscream did not get his name from being a relaxed fool. He issued a loud war cry to gather his remaining forces, whatever they may be. Not one orc came from outside patrols, not one lumber worker showed up. Thankfully his forces from two out of three barracks showed up.

Now Grom knew that they were being attacked. Just before he commanded his subordinates to check on the thirty traitor grunts who gave false information to him, a magical translucent wall was raised in front of them, about twenty paces in front. The same occurred all around them.

In the meantime, the wizards were surrounding one of the barracks with an active ward up. The sounds that pass through the ward were copied by it to be played over in a loop, while stopping other sounds from passing through. This was a perfect ward for isolating forces and dealing with them separately. The din of noise of an active barracks would still be heard from outside and the ones inside would still hear the occasional sound from the outside. More appropriately each of them would hear the recorded sounds over what would happen in real-time.

This ward had been raised just before the orc chief sent out his scouts, and was playing the loop by the time the scouts returned. The denizens of that barracks would not trouble the other orcs. The wizard hunters were just about to start scouting the inner side of the barracks, when the orc chief issued a war cry calling everyone to him. Thankfully at least one barrack would not heed his call.

The wizards knew that the warchief would know of the missing patrols within a few seconds. The only ones that posed them any amount of challenge were the local shamans, so they decided to use their orc grunts in subterfuge. While the orcs were gathering, Harry dug out his trunk for the physical isolation device that he built for vampires back in the day. It was a set of sixteen artefacts that could be connected in pairs, making 8 translucent walls that allow no physical passage through, but allow sight and spells to be cast. The walls were arranged so that an octagon was formed, but it didn't have to be perfect. The walls were crisscrossing each other at the edges, so that the captives would not be able to reach them in order to disable.

The orcs became restless, they began reconfiguring their positions to better accommodate any threats from any side. Scouting eyes narrowed in every direction, since the magical enclosure surrounded them. They still could not see their damned attackers. This was most likely a retaliation from the night elven women from the previous day.

One of the twenty two Witch Doctors was about to make the command to cast their sentry wards, when the thirty grunts that went scouting previously simultaneously bashed them on the head with the flat of their axes.. Most of them had at least a concussion, or worse, but the end immediate result was that all the shamans were disabled. The grunts quickly turned their flat weapons on the rest, while the small stones fell onto bodies of the shamans and ignited into blue color. The unconscious shamans disappeared in the middle of the ensuing brawl.

The orcs were stunned at the teleportation magics displayed in front of them by the attackers. The enemy would now meet no mercy from their swords and axes. If the enemy was powerful enough to launch teleportation magics of the enemies right between the orcs, then there was too much danger in letting them live. The orcs had no idea how right they were.

Then the unthinkable happened, the Raiders were dislodged from their beasts and launched over the enclosure. Along the flight they were hit with some kind of a red light of a spell and their screams turned mute. They might as well had been killed. Then the same happened to every troll headhunter. From their force of one hundred and some orcs, fifteen or more orcs were launched that way every ten or so seconds.

This was infuriating to the commander. He, along with the rest charged the wall right after they finished dealing with the traitor grunts. While his Gorehowl axe sank through the barrier with no resistance, his hand could not pass the barrier. It infuriated him when the grunts at his side were launched over the wall. Unleashing a mighty war cry, he started charging Gorehowl with all the magic he had and let it go at the wall. It seemed that the wall was actually suffering under his ministrations. There were ripples coming out of the places where Gorehowl hit the wall and spreading throughout the wall. A minute or so later, the wall seemed to have disappeared.

At this time there were only ten of the orcs left - Grom himself, two of his captains, three grunts, one kodo beast without its rider, and three raiders. This time the raiders were blown backwards from their beasts. All of the orcs were lifted off the ground the next moment. The only one to break the forced levitation was Grom, and he narrowly avoided the incoming red spell. The rest fell, leaving the Chieftain to fend for himself. The attackers finally revealed themselves, or at least one of them did. This was one of those wretched humans, who imprisoned him just a few scant months ago. The levitation was attempted on him again, but he broke it off just as easily as the first time.

The human narrowed his eyes speculatively, then drew a sword from his back sheath. He almost silently darted toward Grom and engaged in a breathtaking fight.

Harry was finding the chieftain to be somewhat interesting. There was an edge to this greenskin that was absent in the rest. There was wisdom mixed in with the bloodlust of the orcs. He had the ability to dispel the levicorpus charm. The greenskin also found a way to damage the integrity of the prison machine that withstood vampires with their blood magic. The axe the orc held lit up in Harry's mage sight very brightly. It was a marvel to see such a well enchanted piece of metal on a species perceived to be as savage as the elves claimed. They supposedly face the orcs in the past and knew them to be nothing more than savages, but this piece of metal disproved all that. Harry had half a mind of asking the orc where he got that axe in the first place. Oh well, Harry wanted to see if the orc was as impressive with that axe as he was interesting. He drew his sword from its sheath and dispelled his own disillusionment. Giving the command to the others to stand by and watch, he started a light trek to the orc. Charging the orc, he reviewed the moves and style the orc had displayed so far. It consisted of mostly brutal swings of that axe at the wall and some more finesse displayed against the grunts. Overall the orc had a great strength behind those axe swings.

The movements of the orc became so fast that Harry was hard pressed to keep up. This one orc was almost as fast as Akima and had much more strength than Harry. Harry ended up making sure to never parry his enemy, since that would put too much pressure on his wrists, however thick those may have been. Deflecting those axe swings was not too much problem though. Ten or so swings later, the orc made a leap backwards and concentrated. As Harry launched a 'Seko' cutting spell, the orc seemed to have split into two individuals. Harry felt some other piece of magic being cast simultaneously, but did not have time to register it. Both versions of the orc charged him simultaneously and Harry began to fend off both. Three double swings in, and Harry managed to embed his sword in the ribcage of one of them.

A split second feeling alerted him and before he fully realised what it meant, his sword sliced out of the puncture and was in a guard stance across his back. A fraction of a second later, an axe hammered at the sword with great power. The sword fortunately did not pierce its own sheath, which was the first thing it contacted on his back, under that pressure. Harry quickly apparated back about twenty meters.

The double with the sliced open chest was in the process of vanishing in a puff of smoke, and the other double was running towards him already. The real one was running too. Harry never encountered magic of this kind. He did not know how dangerous the copy was. The last thing he wanted to do was to underestimate the double for a fluke and find out that it could hurt him just like its master. Harry was sure that it was not alive like its master though, so he felt no regret as he launched a cone of spreading spears at it. It batted off three spears, but the other six still pierced it, sending it to the ground. Before it hit the ground, it vanished in a puff of smoke. Harry was very interested in the spell used to create it.

Grom was mad when the surprise attack on the swordsman did not work out. Gorehowl was almost singing with delight at the prospect of drinking this strong wizard's blood, but then the damned human deflected the attack. Something like a 'blink' spell brought the wizard away from him, but the wizard showed up only a few paces away. Charging him, and commanding his double to attack as well, he was surprised to see the wizard lift his sword and launch some type of spears at his double. The double was dead within a single second. Grom stopped right there. The wizard's eyes were on him and Grom fully understood that the first few minutes of their combat were fully indicative of the skill level of the man. Here was a spell that could have ended him as well as it just did his double. The wizard gave him a nod of understanding. This man had him outstripped on many fronts.

Warsong Clan was captured. His skills were not enough to fend off a single man. His pride was taking a savage beating by this man. The orc's knowledge was not sufficient enough to win this day. He angrily acknowledged that not one of his subordinates was lying dead on the field. Indeed there was no one on the field at all, other than them. Then he noticed the wizard's team uncloaking. He was overwhelmed by the number of the enemies. He couldn't deal with a single one enemy across from him. Fifteen enemies was too much even for him.

Defeat gnawing at the pit of his stomach, he growled out one word at the wizard. "Why?" This was a human male, not one of those women. The man should have no reason to attack him, but he did, and Grom wanted to know why.

The human looked at him with a slight smile on his face. They made eye contact and a few seconds later Grom's eyes widened when he felt a strong intrusion in his mind. Surprising really, that this intrusion was felt only so deeply within his mind. He tried to break the connection, but he was denied. He tried to avert his eyes, but the wizard was so deeply into his mind that he no longer needed the eye contact as a channel. Grom closed his eyes and let out a growl as he understood what was happening. The wizard was taking his knowledge. The wizard had the language down already, the skills Hellscream attained during his long life were also taken, the latest plans of the orcs were taken too. The wizard then answered him in orcish.

"You have invaded this forest claiming many trees. The denizens of this place would have slain you all had I not interfered. You had no place to do that, much less the permission of the local inhabitants for your residence here. I came here to deal with you without much bloodshed. What do you have to say for yourself?" Harry was not playing games with this orc.

"We are fleeing the Eastern Kingdoms. There our previous masters have come back. The Burning Legion is back on Azeroth and they came to exterminate us. Our warchief Thrall is en route to a meeting with the Oracle known in these lands." Grom was desperate for help from Thrall. Negotiations with other species or other tribes were never among his strengths. He gave information too freely. To abstain from that, he generally fully avoided conversations altogether. "What do you think of doing now, Human? Where is my clan? What have you done to them?"

"Your subordinates are in cells asleep and bespelled. The only ones hurt were the ones your men hurt during the brawl you had. You are most likely to join them. I will grant you an audience with the local headquarters where you may present your case. You will be tried and judged."

At that moment the ward around the last barrack fell and it shone in blue light from inside. From the door the wizard's companions exited without a scratch on them.

"That's it, you are now the last orc in this camp who draws conscious breath. Your last forces are now with us. Come peacefully with me, and you will have your case tonight. What do you say?" Harry did not want to make an enemy right there, so tried to work with the orc. The news of the return of the burning legion was troubling him, not that he would allow it to show in his countenance. He saw potential in these orcs, unlike Cenarius.

"What will it cost me? I will not be shackled like some criminal. Lead me to the council you spoke of and then we will talk." Grom was gaining his confidence back. He saw that not everything was lost. His clan was safely imprisoned, not one of them was killed. His position as the commander was lost, true. His mission to the warchief was forfeit, at least the way the warchief wanted it. Holding onto Gorehowl, Grom approached Harry. There was a minute tension in the wizard and he said:

"Grom Hellscream, if you want that audience with the inhabitants, you will have to surrender. You understand it well, there is no need to pretend that that's not the case. Submit your axe and your daggers. You will be given a bracelet to limit your mobility. You will be unable to come closer than 2 meters or farther than 30 meters from me. Do not forget why I came here."

The orc glowered at him for more than half a minute, but then his shoulders slumped and he threw Gorehowl onto the ground. It was summoned quickly by the wizard. By the time it reached Harry's hands, the daggers were on the ground as well. The orc had no armaments left on him anymore. A bracelet was levitated to him and he put it onto himself. A brief darkening of light around it signified that it now latched onto him.

They trudged off in the direction of the opening in the enclosure. The orc was told to wait for a few minutes while the wizard conversed with his teammates. For some unknown reason to the orc, the wizard who captured him stared at some female for five minutes with no explanations. Then the process was repeated by both of them on new targets. Then the process repeated itself twice more.

It was unusual for the leader of the Warsong Clan to be this bewildered by the actions of others, but he definitely was now. They seemed to communicate silently, when they had the full capability to communicate verbally. Silent communications were not a topic well covered in the orcish knowledge, but they were touched upon by the shamans. It was well established that the silent communications relied upon body language, but the wizard displayed none. The language was inferior to verbal language, since there was much less that could be conveyed in that method. The combination of the two languages is what most orcs used. This was the established way of contact between most species too.

Yet the wizard then did the same with others and they also accepted the silent treatment. The unusual way that this phenomenon seemed to spread among the cloaked humans, prodded Grom to understand that this was not just simple silent communication. Something more was being done there.

While the first pair of humans was occupied, the others quickly went around the town and brought down the enclosure's walls. The artefacts were placed in something akin to a trunk. Grom was not believing his eyes when four wizards walked into a trunk one after the other. In the six minutes that they were absent, six more wizards joined the leading pair in the staring match, first two and then four. The remaining eight wizards inspected the buildings, threw around some of their spells, and generally entertained themselves, all the while looking at him. Just as the five minutes were finishing up, the wizards looked at him and raised their wands. A dome arose around him, impossibly heavy and opaque. Grom was plunged into darkness. He fumed as the minutes passed. He somewhat understood what was coming up. All the wizards would be incapacitated for the next five minutes and nobody trusted him enough not to try to retaliate against them.

At the end of the five minutes, the dome became translucent and a moment later just disappeared. Grom looked at the face of the leading wizard and grunted his acknowledgement of the need of that treatment.

The man smiled and brought out a horn, of all things, from his pouch. He blew it long and loud. By the end of the blow, the air beside them shimmered as many night elven figures arrived with the teleportation.


	4. Chapter 4 Discussions and Corruption

Cenarius' forces were located three kilometers away, near the makeshift prison. As soon as thorn sounded, they used the portal scroll given to them by Xiana. Her specialty laid in transport magics, and she made the best portkeys and scrolls.

Cenarius himself appeared a moment later with a brighter glow than the rest. He looked at the orc with aversion and then the camp now teeming with night elves trying to secure it. He swiftly turned away from him and towards the Scorpion Sorcerer.

"You have my gratitude wizard. This day you have proven without a shadow of a doubt that you are a friend to night elves, me and life. I commend your reluctance in taking any lives. This day I may grant you a gift of your choosing. Think on what it will be, while I restore this bleeding forest."

Cenarius went up to a tall hill and summoned up his power. His powers might be mighty, but Ashenvale forests were the epitome of a magical forest. Restoring its trees and giving life back to them would be a hurdle for him. Thankfully the trees were only recently chopped. Practically all the root systems were alive and still teeming with life and magic. Unleashing his power, Cenarius revived the majority of felled trees. From the tree stumps rose stems that fed on his magic. Quickly the stems sprouted side stems and leaves. The trees rose from the first few scant centimeters of height to two, then three, then five and all the way up to twenty or so meters in height. The leaf structure became lush and the trees healthy. The root system attached to the trees, layer to layer. Venous systems aligned properly and the life cycle restarted for the trees. Alas, sometimes even he could not channel enough energy to revive the whole forest in one swoop. He prepared to cast it again, when he heard the wizard call his name.

"Cenarius, I now know what gift I should ask of you." Harry mentally prepared himself to say the next thing. "Please teach me your magic. If you can restore life to this part of the forest in a minute, then I plan to restore life to my world in a decade. What you have shown here is inspiring me enough to be your student." Harry looked Cenarius in the eye steadily.

Cenarius let a small smile grace his lips. The wizard was a … respectable being. He did not ask of much mostly; he chose to spare eternal night elven lives and risked his own friends to rid the area of the green monstrosities that arrived in the area; he wanted to revive his own world; he expressed the desire only to learn and do good deeds.

"Yes, you may have this honor. We will continue this discussion after sunrise. Now what can you tell me about the greenskin? Why was he not imprisoned?"

"He wanted an audience with the commanders of the night elves. He said that the Burning Legion that you talked about has come back to this world."

"This is most troubling news. How trustworthy is he?" Cenarius' frown was deep now.

"I have extracted the knowledge from his mind. I saw the demonic taint he felt during the second invasion of this land. He is now feeling the draw just as strongly. He would know his master's taint and call better than either of us would. He feels the draw to some artefact in the nearby area. Do you feel it? We could use him to get us to the site of the taint emanations, or we can do it ourselves."

"Hmm, let me see." Cenarius asked Harry to leave, so Cenarius could concentrate. The whole area screamed of the pain the forest felt under the harsh mercies of the orcs. There was the corruption that the orcs brought with them. It was stronger in some areas, weaker in others. But then Cenarius felt a well of power somewhere in the area. It was beyond corrupted, it was corrupting everything in the area. So this was the reason why he felt so much resistance when he was bringing life back to the area. The life force of this area of the forest was being twisted by this force. What was it? Where did it originate from? Cenarius did not know. He concentrated on it for a long time, but could not find it in himself to locate the source.

A concentrated sweep of the area would take weeks, he knew that. The orc would have to be their shortcut. There was too much at stake now. If the burning legion came back, then the night elven forces have to gather and engage. The furbolgs would help, of course. The centaurs would lend in their mobile aid. Every single creature in Kalimdor would fight to its dying breath to oppose the legion.

The wizard and his team would be used just as well. It was rather fortunate that the humans arrived at such a critical time, even if it was slightly suspicious. Acting on that thought, Cenarius summoned the man.

"I do remember you advocating your mind meld technique. You wanted to share some stories with me, yet now i must be asking you not to hold back anything. Unfortunately i must do this to confirm that you do not serve the Burning Legion, knowingly or not. We will commence as soon as you are ready."

The man's face fell at that. Oh he tried to cover it up, but, after dealing with night elves for millennia, Cenarius read facial expressions like words on a paper. His tone softened.

"Understand my position here, Harry Potter. I'm sure you do already. Yes, you agree."

Cenarius felt an intrusion in his mind as soon as the spell left the wizard's eyes. There was only a presence so far, but it did not dig any further, just staying present in the mind and keeping an open connection. The centaur traced the connection back to the wizard and proceeded to witness the entirety of the man's life. Every single moment was perceived and every single memory was analyzed for truthfulness. The demigod looked at the bared soul and consciousness of the human and was impressed, despite his misgivings at the methods the wizard used sometimes. The man was crafty, inventive, dangerous. If this day the wizards had a mission to kill, then the man could have done that himself. He could be a death machine to rival Cenarius himself on a battlefield.

In return, Cenarius created another folder within the man's computer styled mind and input the knowledge needed for the man to learn the art of restoring life to trees and how to magically jealous using the local powers. If the wizard wanted other knowledge, then he would have to earn it.

Harry came out of the trance, noticing that the sky started lightening up in the east. They must have gazed at each other for many hours. His eyes felt extremely dry and his legs felt somewhat weak. Despite all that, his magic almost fully replenished and wanted to be used again. With fond experienced he ignored the call and concentrated on the present.

"The greenskins said they wanted to fight the undead. Let them. I will not be burdened by them, however, and no night elf will now deliberately work with them. You will take command and lead them to their battles. You will be our connection to the orc forces. The rest of their Horde will have to come back from their expedition and join up with you.

"Unfortunately for now we must take the chieftain and get him to lead us to the site of this corruption. We leave in twenty minutes. Get him and yourself ready to leave. Let your friends rest for now." Cenarius then galloped away in search of the ranger captain. He commanded two battalions to be ready in fifteen minutes and three messengers sent to all night elven cities telling them of the resurgence of the Burning Legion. All were to meet in Astranaar in three weeks time.

The night elven army consisted of almost every single night elf over the age of three hundred. At least at some time in their life, most night elves serve the defence forces. It was just a part of their culture. The total number of night elves that the demigod expected was about thirty thousand or so.

Harry quickly strode across the camp to get Grom. The orc was very audibly snoring the night away on a makeshift bed. It was obvious that he made it himself, without much skill. As soon as Harry levitated the orc, he awoke with a gasp and righted himself, cancelling the spell's hold on him with experience. He groggily asked the wizard for the reason for the rude awakening.

"We are moving out in fifteen minutes for the well of the corrupted power. You will be our lead. Unfortunately you are going to be the only orc, just like I am going to be the only human. We will rendezvous with the night elves over there," Harry said, pointing to the northwestern side of the camp.

"Alright, human. Give me that time." Hellscream trudged off into the night.

Harry made preparations to leave at the correct time. Some potions were imbibed, some fluids expelled.

By the end of the eighteenth minute, everyone was ready and waiting on the northwestern side of the camp. Two battalions of archers, two glaive throwers and three huntresses joined the colossal centaur and his entourage.

Along the coast they went, and quickly they reached a small copse of trees blocking their way. Cenarius, the unthinkable creature, made the trees move out of their way. The act itself defied any logic, but the fact was that the trunks of the trees gained a seam down the middle and the two halves became legs. The legs allowed the trees to wander off into the forest. The moving trees were also quite deadly looking. There was too much swiftness in their movement speed and too much strength and thickness in their arms.

The night elven forces encountered some of the local wildlife and gold deposits along the way. Then they reached a webgate. The night elven huntresses on their saber mounts quickly darted inside and came back a few moments later saying that the area was clear of the enemies. Everyone quickly went through.

Everyone felt some magic heavily in the area. It was not the welcome sort of magic that Ashenvale forest gave off constantly, but corrupted, twisting side of magic. Furbolgs in the area did not recognize their demigod. They attacked everything on sight. The nearby area turned into a literal slaughterhouse, as all animals turned and attacked each other in a free for all. No species banded together, everyone fought individually. However, the result stayed the same - the denizens of the area were wiping each other out.

The night elven entourage was running through the madness, mercifully putting down any animal that came close enough to them. They had to leave the animals for now to find the source of the corruption. Under the lead of Grom, they made their way to the fountain in the woods. It was radiating highly cursed energies. The elves stayed back while Cenarius, Harry and Grom went near to study and fix it.

Harry felt some magic pushing at his awareness, so he reinforced his occlumency shields. Cenarius was walking around the fountain as well. It was corrupted with blood. Something heavily cursed spilled blood in this well. It could've been killed or could've spilled its blood deliberately.

The level of power this being must have had, led the centaur believe that this was a deliberate act on the enemy's part. There were no hunting parties in the nearby area that would be able to slay something of this power. What could be its reason to do this?

The demon lost a significant amount of power spilling its blood into this cursed fountain. Some mindless damage would be inconsequential in the end, since it would be put down in the near future. The denizens would wipe themselves out, destroying the source of new cannon fodder for the demon. Trees being corrupted by the blood would do little good in the short run. The demon with this ability power would have to be much smarter than that. What could be the reason?

Well, since it was the orc that brought them here, Cenarius felt a gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach. The orcs would be fighting the elves in the nearby future, if not for the intervention of the wizards. If Cenarius himself was leading the charge, then the orcs would have a chance to attack him. His celestial being would protect him from their normal attacks, but his well of power was already hurting his skin and magic. If he was surrounded, isolated, and assassinated, the night elven resistance in all of Kalimdor would be devastated.

Son of Elune went to the scorpion sorcerer and related his conclusions. The wizard agreed, but as soon as they started discussing the identity of the demon powerful enough to do this, they heard a commotion on the other side of the fountain.

Grom heard whispers as soon as he got near the fountain. They were beating at his psyche. At first, he ignored it, thinking his inner strength would overcome this affliction. A few moments later, while he stared at the fountain, he started consciously fighting with the influence, using his considerable shamanistic power. He found himself utterly unable to do anything. There was no motor control of his body. There was no ability to call his energies. He looked at the wizard and the centaur and tried to warn them that something strong was affecting him. His mouth would not open, his voice box would not issue a growl or expel an extra breath. His body betrayed him as it brought him closer to the fountain and made him slouch over the well of water, almost inhaling the water. His body started drinking the water as if there was an unquenchable thirst in him that could only be filled with this water. Drinking three, five, ten, twenty gulps of the water, Grom raised his head and let out a deep guttural roar.

The human and the demigod came around the well of power as Grom started relishing in the feeling. The control of his body was still gone, but he now felt the power coursing through his veins. He felt invincible, his body was gaining physical strength. His abilities multiplied in strength. The pigments on his skin chemically changed, so that they would reflect the red light rather than green. He now drew in power as well as exuded it. Energies like what his ancestors could draw upon were now available to him. As soon as Grom's body saw the demigod, he bared his many sharp teeth and charged. Along the way he picked up a sharp rock and imbued it with his power. Unleashing his energies, he cursed the demigod to be slower than usual. He just bent around the fountain, and, placing one foot on the top of the outlying rock, leapt off the ground to attack the godling.

Just as Grom reached the apex of his flight, a sudden force slammed him bodily into the ground, hard. His hip was dislocated, his elbow pointed in the wrong direction, his fingers were crushed. As soon as he was on the ground, the rock was ripped from his slack fingers and his body was bent into the fetal position and entombed within chains. Layers upon layers of chains were wrapped around his body. His head was the only thing now free to the world.

The red pigments in his skin shone brightly in the dawning light. The red haze around the eyes was shining even brighter. The whisper-turned-voice in his head was proclaiming, "Yes, Hellscream, do not forget whom you serve. I am Mannoroth and I brought you to this world." At his feeble denials. the voice said: "I am the fire that burns in your veins, I am the rage that you turn towards your enemies, I am the one who allowed you to escape to this land. Do not claim you pitiful freedom, for you are forever mine. You don't deserve said freedom. You will only ever be mine."

While the orc was struggling with his inner demon, the wizard was quick to placate Cenarius and his forces that he had everything under control. The red color the orc had was worrying. Harry asked Cenarius to cleanse the pool while he would delve into the mind of the orc to free him of the possession.

Demonic possession was not something Harry ever dealt with personally, but he was sure it was an advanced form of the ghost or poltergeist possession. He dealt with plenty of them in his time. Hogwarts definitely gave one poltergeist that was immune to full exorcising and had a liking of possessing students for harmless fun.

As soon as the sorcerer entered the mind, he saw the spreading corruption in the orc. It took the form of sludge with fungal growths appearing on it, spreading along and into the surface of the orc's spirit. This demon noticed harry's presence and immediately attacked with all his mental powers. Those same powers proved to be entirely too much for Harry to properly deal with. Whatever resistance the wizard put up to combat the demon, it was crushed. The expulsion from the orc's mind was painful and almost physical. Harry's body fell on its back as he gathered himself. This demon expelled Harry with the mental statement that the orc was now the property of Mannoroth and no one else.

Harry looked at Cenarius, who was busy nearby. The fountain was losing its reddish hue and was gaining a healthy, natural, green view. The magical algae inside of it were revived to provide nourishment for the local animals and plants.

Harry asked what would happen to the already corrupt water that was still inside of the fountain. Cenarius said that it would have to be spilled, unfortunately. Harry immediately vanished the water, not letting Cenarius do that horrible deed. There was no possibly good reason to let the corruption to linger in the area. To knowingly spread it to be healed later was still a course of action that Harry could not condone, even from an immortal demigod.

Cenarius was surprised for a second, as the water just vanished from the tap of the wizard's staff. The last of the corruption in source vanished and water started jerking out of the underground passages into the fountain again. It would be full again within an hour or two, but for now the green algae would have to die. It was rather unfortunate for the algae, but this was good news to the local animals. The corruption was now stopped at the heart.

"I continue to underestimate your magic, Mr Potter," Cenarius said with a smile. "If you can now do something to preserve the algae, my thanks will be granted to you again, with another gift."

Harry smiled and just proposed that they go back to base to rest and recuperate. Potions were wearing off and the stress of a battle at the dusk and this corruption at the dawn had him knackered.

Thirty minutes later the entire party arrived at the settlement of the orcs. Six minutes after that, Harry Potter was fast asleep, snuggled to Xiana.

Now, my readers. I fully understand that the balance of power in the story is not set correctly. I have inherited the story of the Scorpion Sorcerer and so I had to accept some facts set by the previous author, Vorlon666. In essence this is a fanfiction of a fanfiction of Harry Potter.

Some important details I would like to draw from the original story to explain the behaviors of the wizards:

1) They have access to an ore dubbed Naquadria by Harry. It is an ore that multiplies the power of the magic passing through it by a hundred times.

2) They have access to an ore dubbed Naquadah by Harry. It is an ore that multiplies the power of the magic passing through it by ten times.

3) Harry, Xiana and Neville have staffs that have cores based on the Bose-Einstein Composite. This matter multiplies the passing strength of spells by eight hundred times, or so.

4) All of them have wands made out of Naquadria, so all their spells are overpowered by design. The overpowerment is even more pronounced in the staffs. (For details, please read my other story, Ascension of the Scorpion Sorcerer.)

5) Harry learned to create a cloud of methane gas across a large area and detonate it with a simple fire spell. The damage is devastating.

6) Harry can summon the Scorpion Army, which is the standing force of his goddess, Tiamat.

7) The Naquadria and Naquadah are also used in bombs that wipe out everything in a sphere of 800 and 300 meters respectively.

8) The characters of the wizards are all adults. There are no children with them. Each one of them is a successful person with a fulfilled career and happily married. Yes, we have 8 married couples. No romance will be featured in this story, since we have married people here who had been married for a decade or more. Their insecurities of marriage are dealt with by mental connection between spouses. They are all veterans of the Second Wizarding War and have no qualms about killing other beings, even if they avoid killing when possible.

Yes, I know that they are overpowered, but I have a sandbox to play in and those are its rules.


	5. Chapter 5 Adopting Shamanistic Magic

Chapter 5: Adopting the Shamanistic Magic

The afternoon greeted Harry with a harsh headache. Last night, instead of sleeping, he was busy baring his soul to a demigod. Now his mind was protesting the abuse. In many ways he had the right to be mad at Cenarius for doing that. The invasion may have been gentle, but it was still uncomfortable to go through. Going through his life, opening old wounds that had been healed, had not been easy.

Certainly, his wounds had been healed by Xiana and the whole Zabini family. Gaining acceptance from his former perceived enemies was a healing procedure that his soul desperately needed in its time.

However he had many things to do. The abilities he obtained from Grommash Hellscream were valuable in their own right. Deadly if they were slightly altered. For example, the spell that allowed Grom to create copies of himself. From Grom's memories of young years, Harry knew that the spell was of shamanistic origins.

The spell grants the caster an ability to create mirror images of himself with all the physical abilities of the caster. The spell doesn't take a large amount of energy, even though the created image is a construct made from magic, shaped by the caster's mind. Intimate knowledge of self is required of the caster. One has to know all the nooks and crannies of their body in order to cast the spell correctly.

Unfortunately, in an underdeveloped society like the orcs, only a select few could afford to devote the time to make those types of self-observations. Day to day life required a lot of work in their society, robbing the average folk and warrior of time needed for self-development. Being chieftain in training, Grommash had devoted a lot of his time to the development of this skill.

Upon mastering it, his mind was capable of forming at first one, then two and finally three mirror images of himself. That was the prescribed maximum that their shamans advised for the skill. Every consecutive step made him better and better than other chieftains. After a while, Grommash Hellscream became one of the most dangerous blademaster chieftains in all of orcish horde.

The shamanistic spell was used for practice of actions against one self. The user was capable of seeing where his sword skills lacked in power and where he was developing. He had the ability to draw fire away from himself in a battle, letting the images to absorb much of enemy's firepower.

However the spell had one big limitation, wrapped in a blessing. It could not harm living matter. The images had the full capability to operate and touch inanimate matter, but would turn translucent upon contact with living matter, not causing any harm whatsoever. The reasoning behind the limitation came from the design of the spell. It was a spell used for training and would be pointless if the copies of the caster could harm the master himself. The master had very little advantages over the copies of himself. In fact, physically they would be the same, with the copy having all the physical skills of the master. The master would have the ability to cast any other spells in his repertoire, however.

Thus was born a new caste of master warriors in the orc society, called blademasters. These masters of the blade took on their hardest opponents - themselves. Rarely anyone had the physical capability to take on a blademaster in a fair duel. They became the elite in a few years, chieftains in a few more decades.

However, Harry was bothered by the limitation. Sure, since he had been able to beat Akima and Neville together, he had not had much of a physical challenge in the martial arts department, much less the sword mastery department. The ability to face himself would be invaluable. He was now by far the best renowned duelling champion across the rings on Earth. He already beat the warriors of Tiamat six at a time. Any more, and it was just physically impossible to dodge all the blades. They did not attack one by one, but all at the same time, just like he wanted. The path of self improvement could not end, however. He could not allow himself to stagnate. However he knew that if he was not progressing, he was stagnating. It could only be one or the other.

Knowledge of self he already possessed. Occlumency and animagus transformations at his level demanded no less. The spell was a strange mixture of words to be implemented in the mind. The words were orcish sometimes, sometimes some other language. Maybe even a long lost dialect of orcish language. Grommash did not know, so Harry had no idea either.

Deciding on the course of action he wanted to take, Harry called all other wizards to his and Xiana's home trunk. After he had everyone seated, Harry started explaining to others the new spell he gleaned from the orc's mind. After transferring the knowledge to others, Harry started discussing the merits that the spell offered them in terms of battle usage. Everyone came to same conclusions on their own mostly.

Setting their sights on researching the spell's design, its magical density, the calculations required for its build up and break down, and all other possible avenues of interest inside of the spell's design, Harry decided that it was time for him to engage Odin's eye time machine. Harry set them on to the task of researching his next spell. He wanted everyone to find out and eliminate the limitation of the Mirror Image spell. He would be happy to practice the original in their camp against himself or others, but on the battlefield, he needed capable disposable cannon fodder. What could work better than the clones of himself as the most capable swordsman of his group.

Harry and the other fifteen members of his group would have the ability to attack without any reservations too. That was one of the beauties of the spell. The constructs had only a limited life, so making a fatal wound was not a problem. The problem with novice warriors was that they hesitated before making a fatal blow. The blademasters knew exactly how to make it, since they did it many dozens of times against their magical copies.

Several days later, after many calculations and failed experiments, Neville stumbled upon the correct sequence of mental preparations and spells cast. Those were used for the correctly spawned copy that could touch him and actually drew blood after using a sterilized needle to prick his finger.

Sharing his findings and success with others, Neville went on to create the race to find out who can create the largest amount of copies of himself. It was a fun race, at the end of which they all found that while Harry's copies turned out to be most dangerous, Xiana's were the most numerous. Harry reached the number 42 within a minute of casting, completely exhausting his mental reserves. Xiana beat him at 48. The mental drain was exhausting the wizards much faster than the magical drain. Harry felt that he could create more than a hundred of copies, but mentally he knew that to be a pipe dream. Practice may bring him more clones, however.

Dealing with the short life of the clones in battle proved to be that small thing that would use his excess magic. Harry poured a jolt of magic at different times during the formation process. Sometimes the clone would turn up deformed, as some of its parts would be oversaturated with magic, while others would be nonexistent because of a lack of magical quota to form them. Others the spell would be disrupted in the process of formation. Harry tried to pour the jolt a second time, equal in magnitude to the amount that is used in the original formation of the clone, just after the mental formation of the clone. It turned out to work, as the clone survived in the open world for fifteen minutes.

Letting their inner boys out, the wizards had a large fight amongst their clones for the king of the hill. A whole army of men in their top shape rushed against each other, sides clashing against each other. All eight teams lost a good number of members, when entire teams started to fall. First it was Colin, then Neville, and the others followed. The twins wiped each other out.

Women went for fifteen minute massages made by themselves. There is no one better at doing a massage to a person than themselves, provided that they know how to do a good one in the first place. The women knew and thus enjoyed their own ministrations. Life was good.

Practicing against each other for the last fifteen days for half a day each time toned the wizards' bodies to be very resilient in the face of physical and magical stress. They had to face against any and every combination of attacks.

Practicing the magical skills, the whole wizarding group did not surface from their command trunk for the whole month. Cenarius left for the Emerald Dream to recall all of his student druids. Teaching in that plane of existence was so much easier for him that he made all the druids relocate their minds into that plane. The male Kaldorei population would be back to the world of Azeroth within another two days.

Fully engaged against their own harmless copies in a sword battle, the wizards finally burst out of their respective trunks. The sounds of a sword battle drew the night elves to a very peculiar sight. There were wizards fighting to their death locked in combat against copies of themselves. The night elves had no idea of what to do, so the dryads stepped in and nulled all magic in the area. The copies vanished with a puff of air and the wizards gave them glares for their troubles. The horde of witches came out yawning with very pleased smiles on their faces. Some more dispelling later, the night elves saw only one copy of each of the wizards and witches.

Finally the night elven general Raene Wolfrunner demanded to know what was going on.

"We are practicing the spell that the Orcs introduced to us. It allows us to create copies of ourselves for a short while. The copies can be harmed at our leisure. They have a life of fifteen minutes. Currently we have two versions of them. One cannot hurt us, the other can. We are practicing our skills in a mock battle to improve." Harry took the lead in explaining the situation.

"Hm, right. So the orcs had this ability, you say? I'm not surprised my sisters lost in their camp. This would be a dangerous ability to have, whatever your foe is. Considering their physical strength, the orcs' use of this spell would be destructive in the extreme." Raene was very worried by the new development that the wizards gave her.

Harry was quick to appease the woman with the assurance that the wizards themselves just made the destructive version of the spell. The orcs only had access to the harmless version, and even then, only the blademasters had it. The spell also only created physical copies of themselves without the ability to cast any spells. Explanations of that topic took a good portion of five minutes.

"In that case, how many copies can all of you create at once?" Raene's tone was unreadable.

"Er, Let me see here." After a short conversation with others and adding the numbers, Harry said " Just over five hundred."

"Battalions four, six, eight, eleven, twelve, and one, report to the main compound in thirty minutes in full battle gear." Raene ordered behind her with a loud voice. Night elven ears across the camp pricked up upon hearing her order. "Now please make those five hundred harmless copies of yourselves. We would like to to have that mock battle."

For the next twenty minutes Harry and his teammates busied themselves with putting on armor that would cover most of their outside features. They did not want to give elves the pleasure of an easy win. The bows that the elves possessed gave them a great advantage of range, so the wizards had to counteract that somehow. Armor came up to be the logical choice. Twenty five minutes later Harry was already addressing the sentinels in preparation for the battle.

"Please be fair to your opponents. They cannot and will not harm your body. Keep in mind that they can and will harm your armor. They just will never be able to penetrate you skin. A fair demonstration should be enough..." here a copy of Harry himself took out his sword and impaled it into the real Harry's neck. "... to prove to you that their attacks are never fatal. If you would notice, the blade around my skin turned translucent. However, if the clone were to strike my sword, then I feel the normal resistance." Here he took out his sword, while his clone pulled back the half translucent sword from Harry's neck. Clashing swords, the two versions, showed some basic moves. Harry pointed out that his armor would be pushed around by his clone. "Now to be fair to your opponents, please notice where they are striking you. If they got past your defense and struck you, then act as if you are disabled. If you know that the wound would have been fatal, then please lie down on the ground if you cannot safely leave. The simulation will run for ten to twelve minutes."

After the speech, Harry allowed the battalion commanders to gather their units into formations they would like to use.

Meanwhile he and the Scorpion Mages took out their respective swords, gathered their magic, and let the clones form. Their side of the field quite quickly filled up with many heavily armored magical constructs in the shape of humans. Every one of them had a sword in hand and showed no unnecessary amount of skin.

The night elves were already gathered in five rows of eighty archers with another hundred staying back with bows as the reserve force to fill in the forming gaps.

When the wizards apparated away, they made sure that every one of them was there. Upon them releasing a cannon spell into the air, the constructs charged the elves. The speed was admirable for humans in all of them.

Elven arrows sailed against them from a relatively short distance of sixty meters. Altogether the elves' precision was incredible, not a single arrow went over the heads of the last line of charging constructs. In terms of successful fatal strikes, they had a bit of a problem. Many arrows were deflected with the katanas the wizards had. Agility, dodging and swift bladework saved many enchanted lives Many constructs fell in the first volley, much fewer of them fell by the second volley. They were learning how to properly Dodge or deflect the arrows. It turned out to be possible, even if very hard.

However, the elven rate of fire completely astonished the wizards. It was hard to believe, but by the time the first arrowheads reached the wizard clone line, the second was already in the air and the third was already notched. In the space of barely over a second and a half, they sent out three volleys of arrows with deadly accuracy at charging targets.

Of the original five hundred constructs, only a hundred reached the elven lines. That's when they showed what they were capable of. The elves in the front lines drew their twin daggers and holstered their bows over their shoulders. Daggers started flicking in virtuosic patterns in the night elven hands, deflecting, but never parrying the human constructs' strikes. Many of them did not did not 'survive' under the onslaught of longer swords. Damaging the sentinels did not prove to be too hard. Taking them out of the count was definitely easier. Using teamwork and better weapons, the wizarding team plowed through the night elves.

Elves and men fell in the battle with surprisingly equal numbers. The elven women fortunately turned out to be honest when it comes to their 'deaths.'

Three minutes into the battle, the last of the constructs vanished in a puff of smoke. The elven women were shaken up by the display they a of the humans' power. This was a battle that the elves were well prepared for. They had a range advantage on the magical clones, but the clones had clearly better melee skills than their front lines held. The worst part was that the wizards themselves were just standing to the side out of harm's way, while over a hundred sentinels fell in battle. Sentinels were the handpicked best among the night elves. Abilities like these were sorely needed in their ranks. The elves were happy that the wizards were on their side for now. Acquiring the possibility to create archers for the duration of a battle with the ability to slay foes for the cost of arcane energy, would be invaluable.

Raene was standing next to Xiana as she relayed her findings to the strong human woman. She asked what would it take for the wizards to represent the night elven society in the coming conflict with the Burning Legion. The elves would forever thank the Wizards for any eternal night elven lives saved in the coming conflict.

The wizards were turning out to be a true godsend in the face of the coming Burning Legion invasion.

Characters in the story:

Harry Potter: Leader of the Scorpion Sorcerers; ward builder; husband to Xiana; creates 42 copies of himself.

Xiana Potter-Zabini: Harry's wife, third in command of the Scorpion Sorcerers; proficient in teleportation magics; creates 48 copies of herself.

Blaise Zabini: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Ginny; armoury manager; creates 31 copies of himself

Ginny Zabini-Wesley: Scorpion Sorcerer; wife to Blaise; field medic; creates 26 copies of herself;

Colin Creevey: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Hailey; information storage specialist; creates 35 copies of himself.

Hailey Creevey-Heathermoon: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Colin; information gathering specialist; creates 40 copies of herself

Fred Weasley: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Parvati; R&D Specialist; magical artefact specialist; creates 37 copies of himself

Parvati Weasley: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Fred; R&D Specialist; magical artefact identifier; creates 31 copies of herself

George Weasley: Scorpion sorcerer; married to Padma; R&D Specialist; magical explosive specialist; creates 37 copies of himself

Padma Weasley: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to George; R&D Specialist; magical artefact specialist; creates 31 copies of herself

Theodore Nott: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Brinna; politically savvy person; creates 38 copies of himself

Brianna Nott-Zabini: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Theodore; international relations specialist; creates 25 copies of herself

William Weasley: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Fleur; curse breaker; creates 41 copies of himself

Fleur Weasley-Delacour: Scorpion Sorcerer; curse breaker; creates 29 copies of herself

Neville Longbottom: second in command of the Scorpion Sorcerers; married to Luna; ward builder; creates 36 copies of himself

Luna Longbottom-Lovegood: Scorpion Sorcerer; married to Neville; seer; ward builder; creates 41 copies of herself


	6. Chapter 6 Alliance and Horde

Raene Wolfrunner did her utmost to make sure that her subordinates would get a practice against a 'live' enemy in the coming days. She used methods that were tried and proven to work on many other nations. She offered pieces of legendary armor, enchanted weapons, finely made statues in order to convince the wizards to provide the training. Whatever she offered the wizards finely measured, took and studied. Raene was very sad to see some of the finest enchanted swords being lost to her culture.

One of the swords given to the wizards was Blinkstrike. The ability to travel by teleportation was not new to the wizards, not by any means. However, an item that consumed all of the wielder's momentum at the teleportation, only to be released into the indestructible tip of the blade which strikes the enemy, was very interesting. The mental stress of using it made it accessible to the more disciplined and mentally capable individuals.

The dagger's idea was pretty simple. The wielder would gain the ability to strike the opponent right after teleporting to them. The complications of wielding it came from the need to be fully aware of the outside and the inside of the wearer's body. Also, the precise knowledge of the coordinate difference between the wielder's position and the position of the victim had to be known. The momentum calculations needed to further make use of the artefact available to a select few.

Another set of items that the wizards received was mana oriented. The wearer of the Sobi Mask would get the ability to absorb the ambient magic, slightly boosting their ability to regenerate their mana reserves. Harry previously tested and knew that his reserves completely filled up from the point of exhaustion to the point of full capacity in a time frame of thirty hours. The promising item of the pendant of mana allowed Harry to invest his magical reserves into it, with the proviso that he would be able to retake it at any time he desired. In effect, his overall mana reserves expanded by a significant percentage. The two items, coupled with the Amulet of Spell Shield, made Harry into a more dangerous enemy on the battleground.

After receiving the four items, the wizards vanished into their trunk homes and did not surface for an entire day. Just like the previous day, Raene was left with watching over the orcs, elves and the forest of Ashenvale without a single person able to help alleviate her problems.

She hated it.

When the wizards showed up again, they gave back the items she had given them. She thought that was quite strange. Gifts like that were usually cherished in the Kal'dorei society. Then she noticed that every one of them had a new large pommel of a sword sticking out over their left and right shoulders.

"The creation of each of these swords took us over two days. I hope that you will respect them for the effort gone into them," George Weasley said. "We have over sixty of these Blinkstrike swords. When tested, they even cut through our magically reinforced armor. That, in itself is very impressive, let me tell you. You will not find any of the Elune based energies in this blade, so all of that magic is our own. If you want to hear detailed instructions on how to make them, just let me know. Otherwise, Harry has something to show you."

"These Sobi Masks have a great idea behind them. However, I don't understand why your people insisted on having a bloody mask to wear in order to increase your mana regeneration. We broke down the enchantments and copied them over to a simple piece of this brown metal. We call it Naquadah. The amount of magic absorbed by me with that is significantly higher than what your original item provided. Also the piece can be slotted into a bracer that your sentinels are fond of utilising. We have over three hundred copies of this piece. The storing capacity of your mana pendant was enchanted into amethysts shaped like disks or half-circles. Losing the pendant would no longer be a concern to the elves. These would be slotted into the breastplates, under the cleavage. The amulets of spell shielding keep their shape, but the location on the body they would occupy would be on the back of the sentinel, where the defence is at its weakest. The chance to damage it, however is very small. We have over six hundred of these."

Raene was quite flabbergasted with the news. Blinkstrike was an artefact of legends in the Kaldorei lore. The items she had bargained the wizards with turned out to be a most prolific investment she had made in her whole millennia-long life. She had profusely thanked the wizards for the gifts. The elves were now truly forever indebted to the wizards. Elite sentinels would now be able to survive so much more.

In the evening, the elves had quite demurely offered the wizards to take some more gifts. Their intentions were lost on no one. Theodore Nott chuckled and accepted them, calling every night elven blacksmith to him. They had a lot of work to do.

In the days to come, the night elves also invested some of their most legendary pieces of armor into the project. The Battlegear of the Saurok Stalker was analyzed, dissected, and then replicated with much more efficient pieces. The night elven women, after an initial shock of seeing time-manipulation of the Odin's Eye, proved to be very capable with their hands in the smithy of the wizards.

One on one combat training sessions were scheduled with the wizards as well as group and battalion battles. The elves became responsible for providing supplies to the sessions, while the wizards would provide copies of themselves. The wizards continued to provide copies of themselves once an hour. There were many battles striking out between the two factions. The elves remained honorable in their 'deaths,' while the wizards gained invaluable experience in dodging flying arrows shot at their copies by master archers.

Within three days, they found that the sentinels learned to predict the movement and dodging style of the wizarding constructs. This led to the wizards adapting new styles of movement to combat the elves effectively. In the end, it was the wizards that got the most out of the sessions, but the elves learned how to shield from fatal blows effectively.

Cenarius would not be back for another ten days, so Raene had to manage Astranaar with the recently acquired prisoners. The leader was still red with demonic influence. The orcs near him started being troublesome as well. Remembering Cenarius' words to her, she went up to Harry to deal with her growing problem.

"Harry Potter, please take your wife and join me in the command centre." Raene did not want to have to deal with the woman who had her nails dug deep into the man's heart. She fully acknowledged her own beauty and was proud of it, yet she knew the problems beauty brings with married men and women attached to those married men.

Upon their arrival, she said, "The orcs are behaving worse and worse with every day. My guards keep them in line somewhat, but I would appreciate your assistance in this matter"

"Let me talk to them regarding that. They should have understood the position they're in much better than that." Harry answered the woman. He liked the no-preamble nature of the woman. During all their conversations, she had been very upfront with him and his mages.

He had previously made a speech to the orcs about their new arrangements and what their prospects were. The Warsong Clan had to wait for the Warchief of the Horde to come back and repay the damages to the Kal'dorei people.

The orcs had, of course, been quite unhappy, but their protests fell at their initial realization that they were prisoners. Again. The orcs then did a head count amongst themselves and were surprised to find all of their Clan were safely in their cells. Everyone who reported in after the battle with the purple warrior women, reported in again. They had only minor bruises and headaches.

How had they been captured? The few ones that were conscious after the first waves of capturing told unbelievable stories of how some invisible ghosts descended into their camp and cursed their victims asleep. The stories degenerated into hearsay from there.

By the beginning of the eighth day, Neville felt one of the southern wards trip. Somebody had come to their land. Alerting the Scorpion Sorcerers, Neville cancelled their practice session against the sentinels by simply dispelling the copies of himself. Letting the elves know of the possible danger as well, he advised them to gear up. Ten minutes later, every one of the seven hundred and forty denizens of the Astranaar military outpost had a ring of regeneration, ring of protection and bracelet of attack (modified from the claws of attack) and piece or a whole set of legendary armor that went by the name Battlegear of the Saurok Stalker. The wizards had cut down on most of the showiness of the armor and concentrated on the functional pieces of it to replicate. So far they had little over one hundred and ninety sets of the armor.

* * *

Thrall was very nervous as rode back from the Prophet. The majority of the Horde and the human forces were riding with him to save the Warsong Clan again. First it was the Lordaeron forces that held them, now it was some kind of an interdimensional elite wizarding force.. That's what the Prophet told him and Jaina, at least. Grom was also somehow back under the influence of the demons. That's what the Chieftain was most concerned with.

Thrall knew about the scourge infestation in the Eastern Kingdoms. He made his horde flee the threat, leaving humans to deal with their dead. The orcs did not need to suffer that plight.

The prophet had been infuriatingly cryptic about the new wizard force. There was barely any information given about them. Medivh said that they were not an enemy. That they did not hurt his orcs. Thrall, however knew that Grommash would never go down without a fight. He would fight to the death, rather than being captured again. Lordaeron had greatly hurt his spirit, Thrall knew.

As he and his Horde came upon the site where he had agreed to meet Grom, he saw a human male dressed in flowing robes standing on the top of a hill, looking at them. Grom could not have met a human in these lands as well. The humans had chosen a different route to reach the prophet. As far as Jaina knew, her entourage was the only human force on the western continent. Thrall quickly sent a message to summon Jaina to him right away.

Three minutes later, the human was still standing on the hill, keeping eye contact with Thrall. A swirl of magic and a show of light announced the arrival of Jaina. Tearing his eyes away from the glowing green irises of the stranger, Thrall two of his spectral wolves and approached the figure. The man's magical aura, which had been noticeable from the several hundred paces distance surprisingly diminished as they returned. The stranger seemed to be reining it in as they approached. He certainly made sure that he would be noticed and approached only by the important people.

Smiling slightly to what he was seeing, the human opened his mouth, and the most unexpected words flowed out of it in a perfect orcish: "Aka'Magosh, Thrall."

Thrall's eyes widened, eyebrows rose and cheeks formed a slight smile. "Aka'Magosh human. What is your name? Do you speak common?"

"Not at the moment, so if the young lady at your side does not speak orcish, then you will have to translate for me. My name is Harry. I am a wizard like the lady beside you. Introduce us."

Thrall turned to his companion and started speaking in an unrecognizable language to Harry. The girl smiled, held onto her staff, and said something back - the usual procedure in a conversation with the use of a translator.

"This is Jaina Proudmoore, a mage of the mage city Dalaran from the order of the Kirin Tor. She is the leader of the human presence on this land. I am Thrall, son of Durotan. I am the leader of the Orcish Horde. And who are you?"

"I am Harry Potter, Scorpion Sorcerer, leader of the Scorpion Army, holder of several titles on a different world. Just like you came from Draenor, I came from a different world."

Thrall's eyebrow quirked. So this must be the wizard that the prophet had talked about. He decided to approach the subject much calmer than he intended to. "Do you happen to know the whereabouts of Grommash Hellscream and his Warsong clan? I have need of them."

"Do you know what they have done?" Harry's tone turned powerful

"Whatever it may have been, I assure you they can be properly dealt with within the Horde. We are seeking Grommash, he is said to be under the influence of a Demon."

"Thrall, turn your farsight to the area over those hills." Harry said pointing over a hill about three kilometers away. Thrall said something to his companion, and then cast a spell over his eyes and pointed his hammer in the direction of the area Harry pointed out.

Grommash was imprisoned in metal chains that did not allow any amount of movement. His body was lying on the ground, his skin red. Meanwhile his unarmed singular mirror image was getting decimated by the sword of a human in robes just like the one that the wizard was wearing.

Thrall had his proof - Hellscream was under demonic influence and the wizards had him. The night elven base that the prophet was talking about still did not appear in Thrall's vision range, but he was sure that soon he will be seeing them as well.

"Is Grom the only one under the influence or did all of Warsong clan fall?" Thrall asked the wizard, after telling Jaina about the new developments.

"Grom is the only orc we took to purify the fountain with this capability. The rest of the clan is safe under our guard."

"Good, if he's the only one, then Jaina and my shamans would be able to expel the demonic influence over him. Hand him over and we will do the rest."

"Then prepare whatever you need to purify him. I will have him here shortly." With those words, the wizard just vanished into thin air.

Thrall ordered the ritual circle be constructed by his shamans. The witch doctors and shamans were ordered to gather around him immediately. He instructed Jaina to bring along her priests and paladins and order the others to set up camp around their present location. Resources were plentiful in the area. There was a bulging deposit of metals and minerals in the vicinity as well.

As the shamans and priests were in the process of making the ritual circle, Harry materialized with a thoroughly drained and tired Grom, who nevertheless had fire burning behind his eyes. The red glow surrounding them unsettled Thrall more than he cared to admit. So this must be how they looked at the time they first came to this world. Mindless beasts under the whims of the Burning Legion. Only using their brawn to get the job done.

His people had fallen a long way. Thrall refused to believe that the Orcish horde had been nothing more than what they were in the present state. He was rebuilding the Horde to the idealized images he drew up in his mind of the orcish race in Draenor. He imagined infrastructure that would rival Lordaeron's; life without any particular hardships for his people. If he would end up improving them overall, then so be it.

During the ritual, many shamans had gone dispelling magic that was permeating Grom's body, effectively cutting off the communication that the demon had with the fel orc. The priests were consecrating his body to drive out the demonic influence in it. The paladin cast his holy light to attack the demonic consciousness in the body. The mage and wizard, however, went into the mind of the fel orc to combat the demon mentally.

Harry was sending his best mental attacking techniques to drive at the demon inhabiting the mind of the honorable orc. Water pressure was quenching the fire of the demon. The pressures he input this time actually had the effect on the demon - he was being choked on his fires. The dementor influence had long ago proven to be useless against the demons, unfortunately.

Jaina was marvelling at the refinement of the wizard's attacks, while sending her battering ram strikes with the best effectiveness she could manage.

A single minute of this pressure had the demon completely purged from the body of the orc. The red pigment of the orc's skin had almost immediately started to lose its unholy luster.

"What ... Happened to me? Thrall? You came for me. Thank you, brother." Grom's first words were quite weak. They even showed his weakness in spirit, even if it was gaining rapidly. "Mannoroth. The one who enslaved us previously is on this land. He came back to enslave us again. The Burning Legion is on this world and the human kingdoms are no more." Jaina let out a strangled sound. "I know where he is. We have to get to him right away. You cannot understand how it was being under control of that monster.

"Rest for now, brother. We will deal with him in due time. For now just rest," with those words, Thrall cast a mild sleeping spell on his exhausted friend. Turning to the nearby wizard, he said: "Thank you for not hurting him. He will now be able to get back in shape by tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. I will organise a strike team to go after the Pit Lord. Can I count on your alliance on this matter?"

"You may. Tomorrow after dawn I will be here with some of my associates and we will strike at the pit lord. Remember that this possession happened in front of my eyes. I never saw a corrupting influence of this strength. If you orcs have fought that away individually, then I can say that that was a very commendable feat."

Thrall's eyes held a bit of warmth as he said, "The orcs had driven off many demons in their past. However the pit lord had been our most insurmountable foe. Only getting cut off from him in this world allowed us a chance to do it. You can probably understand that it was not an easy battle by any stretch. However, let's make sure that assault tomorrow goes well. I will prepare my forces and Grom. You can bring in your associates and the Warsong clan."

"Agreed, Thrall. Now, can you give me and Jaina some time." Thrall said something to the girl, most likely a warning of some sort, if Harry read their body language correctly. The girl nodded and looked to Harry, while Thrall left them to communicate with his Horde.

Establishing eye contact with the girl, Harry started speaking in her mind. That sort of communication was usually poor when dealing with untrained minds. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the human population fell into that category. It would allow Harry to get basic messages across, but would hinder him from communicating anything complex.

"Hello Jaina. My name is Harry, and yes, we are speaking in your head."

"H..h..hi. M...m..m..myy nnnaaaammmeee iiiiiisssss JJJJaaaiiinaaa. TTThhhiiisss iiiisss nnneeewww." Her mental speech could benefit from some lessons.

"Tell your friends that we are talking." Harry waited for her to acknowledge that and communicate it verbally to her subordinates watching them closely. Then, after re establishing contact with her, he said "I'm going to learn your language"

What followed for Jaina was a flood of memories and words flowing in her mind everywhere. The total chaos of thoughts in her head did not dissipate for some time. In the meantime, she had no mental capability to question why that was happening, much less be alarmed that the process was happening in the first place.

Then, one moment, her chaotic mind became as clear as it had ever been. The bedlam of memories and thoughts in her mind ceased to be disorderly, and turned into a perfectly clear mind. She suddenly had great recall of all the teachings that her masters had imparted to her. She was not afraid to forget any words in the common tongue for the next foreseeable future. All of her memories became clearer. It was fantastic.

After that came the realization that the wizard across from her had done something to her. She felt the beginnings of indignation and fury rise up within her, when she felt the immense pressure of the wizard in her mind.

"Do not make any rash decisions, Jaina Proudmoore. You are intelligent enough to know what I have done. Right now, I'm denying you control of your body, allowing you to come to grips with your new mindset. Do you see what I improved? Do you remember Antonidas teaching you how to cast your first blizzard? Yes, you have almost perfect recall now. If you want to improve that, then you need to go through some disciplines with me and mine. I may tell you about them later, for now, revel and enjoy the new mindset I gave you. A minute should be enough. You do realise I could be despotic and take over your mind as easily as I learned your language, right?"

The newly awakened mind quailed under the thought and fear was present in the mind, while Harry patiently waited for her to come to grips with it. Slowly, the terror left and rational thinking took over. She had the promise to get her body back. She would soon have the pleasure to slap the man across his handsome face. The invasion demanded that. Then she started thinking about possible uses this man had to her.

She still felt bad about abandoning Kirin Tor and her homeland to save the world at the behest of the prophet. The fact that Medivh was the prophet gnawed at her consciousness still, that traitor to all of Azeroth had too much blood on his hands from the previous war to be ever trusted again. However, she had invested too much in this undertaking. Jaina now had proof that the Demons were on their world. If the orcs had almost destroyed the southern kingdoms, being only minions of the feared Burning Legion, then the Legion itself would eclipse the orcs in terms of the devastation they would cause. They could even topple Lordaeron. The scourge could then be coming here. As soon as she finished helping the local denizens save the world, she would race back home on a crusade to take back her country.

Oh, Light. Let Kul Tiras stay away from the conflict.

Her original plan to make a settlement in these lands did not sound as appealing to her anymore. The oaths she swore in the days past came back to the forefront of her mind. They clearly told her that what she did with her forces was abandonment. It would turn to treason if she did not return afterward. All she had ever worked for would be lost. The orcs would find a way to make a settlement in this land. Their glorious leader could and would do it. He wasn't dependent on her help. He was quite capable of doing it on his own. With the addition of gained wisdom in another orc, Grom, the future of the Horde on Kalimdor became much lighter.

However, at that moment, she realized the gift that the wizard across from her imparted to her. She had a clear vision of what she had to do and her mind was already formulating plans to achieve her goals that were still in the process of formation.

Jaina thanked the wizard profusely for his gift and cleared with him any misgivings she had about the methods he took to deal with her. She was a forgiving sort.

"I make sure to give when I take. Your gift is valuable to me, but my gift to you will change your life. It already did."

"Call in one of your priests to me, I want to talk to him alone. And before you ask, yes, it's going to happen to him too. Get him on your list of prospective high officers."

Jaina nodded and left to send her men to get a healing priest to the wizard. The girl would never realise the power of small charms on her mind. Harry did not go overboard on her, making her his slave in all but name. He simply ensured that she would never even allow the thought of betrayal aimed towards him. Jaina's thoughts became on the possible uses of Harry were quite entertaining. The girl did not realise that her companion in the mental realm could see and hear every thought that formed in her mind.

The priest came, all holy and noble. He was not a man who would turn out to be much in life, overall. The status was given to him simply for his hereditary seat in the priesthood of the Church of Light. Apparently, Jaina played a joke on Harry. The priest's stick in the butt was quickly demolished after he set his eyes upon the eyes of the wizard. The mental intrusion he got was not announced, was not kind, nor was it gentle. The brutal ripoff of knowledge from his mind left him a mess. That mess was just the right thing that Harry needed to start moulding the priest into a respectable citizen. Goals were set in by Harry and sense of honor was reset completely. Harry knew that he was in effect killing a person with his actions, but he was also giving rise to a new person underneath the same exterior. One who would benefit his society much more than he would've previously.

The same procedure was repeated on the Archmage Peril Spellbinder and the Paladin Duke Lionheart. Those were called in by the priest, who until this point was not even important enough to Harry to even bother with his name.

The archmage had all sorts of knowledge on the uses of magic that this world had discovered. The styles of magic in their two worlds were so different that it was strange. Well, two worlds had control over the same well of power, but without collaboration, turned to completely different avenues of development of their mastery. Harry's use of battle magics was one of the very few avenues where the uses were somewhat similar in kind.

This world had not discovered the uses of Naquadah or Naquadria. The elements were simply absent from this planet. Harry already checked. With the use of such elements, the mages of this world would be truly fearsome, even to Harry. Harry was very glad that he just absorbed all the magical knowledge of two archmages, paladin, priest and shaman. The discoveries he made during the process had the potential to be immense in their impact.

The paladin had the mental discipline to call upon the divine power that the humans found. The church itself was nice, but uninteresting to Harry. The absence of a divine being was a definite step up from the religions propagated back on Earth. Duke the paladin had the ability to bring back the recently dead. That ability combined with the nearly unlimited healing potential of the medicine that Harry brought with him to this world, would severely cut down on the possible losses during this conflict. The elves surely also brought their healing moonwell waters. The paladins, priests, witch doctors, moonwells, and Harry's medicine would ensure that the largest amount of soldiers in the coming conflict would survive.

Hary now called for Jaina in common language and Thrall in orcish. Thanks to notice-me-not wards, not many bystanders noticed the amount of time that was spent by Harry in their company.

Thrall came over with Vol'Jin, a troll with carrying a staff. The tusks protruding from his mouth were some of the longest Harry had ever seen.

"I shall now depart to gather forces. We will meet tomorrow a little after the time when we met today. Your people are starting their lunch break. We will arrive a little after the break. Await a force of night elves, wizards and orcs. Do you have anything to mention?"

"It's impressive what kind of forces you manage to command, Harry Potter. Night Elves were feared enemies of the centaurs. That's what we managed to gather. That you have them at your summons, is a commendable feat." Thrall threw Harry's words back at him. It was nice to talk to someone that didn't fear them, or was too intimidated by them. That was a notion shared by every one of them.

"In that case, await my return. Thrall. Jaina. Vol'Jin." With those words, Harry apparated away to his base camp.

* * *

Immediately summoning the wizards and blacksmiths to the smithy, Harry activated Odin's Eye. Setting the night elves to prepare for a battle happening the next day, the wizards huddled together to gather and share knowledge. This time the time to transfer knowledge rose to over eleven minutes, but the result was the same.

Harry was the centerpiece of the knowledge sharing experience in the whole of the Scorpion Army. The different magics that Harry observed, his natural talent for magic duplication made possible for him to learn the process without much supervision. Gathering someone's knowledge in how to cast spells of their kind and then absorbing it, was Harry's way of doing Magic. Breaking down the spells into their component parts to be fitted into the mathematical equations, allowed Harry to then derive and give the incantations to his colleagues.

The software that the university hackers wrote up for Harry during his beginning years, was still the premier software in spell development, creation or alteration. Identifying spells using it became second nature to all the Scorpion Sorcerers. The ability to manipulate all the variables in spell structure allowed them to change spells. Separate software that ran off Arithmantic calculations allowed them to identify the movements and words needed to produce the spells.

One of the first spells they designed using the machine was one that would break down spells into the Arithmantic equations. The equation would write itself up on a piece of paper and make further alterations of the spell possible with the use of the software.

The sharing of knowledge could then be done by others in the scorpion army. The pyramid type of network they had in their organization worked extremely well. All of them were able to transfer knowledge and receive knowledge. The ability to process and store knowledge during receipt was invaluable in the Army. The Scorpions were able to transfer knowledge right after just receiving it. This cut down the time to share all the knowledge gathered by Harry from three minds to just three quarters of an hour.

Xiana was immediately interested in the use of Mass Teleport spell that the Archmage used. She was the admitted best user of Transport magics among them, but she never had the ability to teleport over twenty others with her to any given location that did not have a magical locator there. This Peril Spellbinder would get a visit from her soon enough.

Ginny, Brianna, Theodore, Bill and Fleur immediately pounced upon the knowledge that the paladin and the priest gave them. They would finally be able to create the local elixirs. With the potions stock that they had, they were sure that their supply would be enough for three, maybe four thousand small bottles.

Paladin's resurrection ability was the most profound ability that any of them had ever learned in their life. This ability made them all into beings superior to the fabled Master of Death from their previous universe. From the account of Harry's friend, Daphne Greengrass, the former pureblood Ice Princess of Slytherin, being a master of death did not give much benefit in terms of social life. Dealing with the dead was always punished by the universal power of Death. Using Death's Stick was practically forbidden to her, since she did not have the best fighter's instinct. No, the girl just found the three pieces of the puzzle that haunted the wizarding world for centuries. She wasn't the best fighter, didn't have interest in the power of the Death's Master and didn't want some crackpot burglar to find out she was the Mistress of Death. Her family was dead due to the Sabbat, so she only ever ventured out into the battle scene under the protection of Harry's forces to kill some Vampires.

Daphne Greengrass had absolutely no interest in joining Scorpion Sorcerers. She would rather prefer to live a normal life of a witch, with the proviso that she was now more magically powerful than most wizards, so no house abuse towards her was going to be tolerated. Now she could destroy him magically, not just psychologically, as she had been trained to do since she was a young girl.

Paladin's Resurrection ability didn't incur the wrath of Death, and didn't damage the flow of the universe. This ability happened with the blessing of the divine force of this universe, the Light. Being under the cover of that force, the Paladins brought countless soldiers, champions and monarchs to life. Analyzing the signature of magical and divine force that Harry emitted when he made the small mental prayers and released a wave of his magic. The signature that came out was definitely different from the one that was usually emitted by his core. There was a separate variable induced into the calculations, so the software could not easily decode it. Getting their pens out, the wizards' R&D team together with Harry sat down to modify the spell and enable the rest of them to use it without the use of Holy Magic.

At the time the elves and men exited the trunk, they had another twenty sets of armor made and forty medallions having one charge of a spell capable of returning five others to life. Various weapons were made as well. The number of blinkstrikes available among the Night Elven population of Astranaar rose to three hundred and twenty four. Five hundred rings of regeneration were made for the assisting human forces.

Considering the nature of Odin's Eye, the feat itself was extremely commendable. The artefact created a tear in the fabric of time and provided pocket of time to a set volume with a time of seven hundred and fifty hours. While the volume could be adjusted, as well as the time it would give, the function it provided stayed the same. The marvellous thing was that while all that time happened on the inside, the outside world experienced no time whatsoever. The artefact needed a 24 hour period to recharge after every use.

On the outside world Raene Wolfrunner had seen the wizard come back from the hour long journey he made to the coming force. Since she saw no bad reaction from him, she assumed that the situation didn't require her attention. She dismissed the standing ready forces that were summoned by Neville. The elves had only begun relaxing when the wizards again came out of the trunk with several floating armor sets and a multitude of other items in front of them. Coming up to the armory of Astranaar, the wizards dumped everything there, while the R&D Team explained what every tidbit did.

In the meantime, Harry approached Raene and said:

"There is a demon base a few hours away from here. Orcs and humans will attack them tomorrow afternoon, maybe closer to evening. My scorpions will be with them. Will you join us in eradicating the threat?"

Raene was quite surprised to hear the words, but kept her collected attitude with practiced ease. "Where did you get the information? How reliable is the source? Why tomorrow? In three days time, Cenarius will come back to Astranaar with our druids."

"The humans will not wait long for the possible arrival of allies. The orcs will be attacking them too. We can finally get rid of our prisoners by tomorrow. They would return to their own Horde, where they will be punished for the initial battle they had with your subordinates.

"An alliance with them at the moment would be necessary, since they can provide us great aid in battles. Believe me when I tell you that some of their abilities exceed those of your druids." Raene looked quite skeptical at hearing that. "And never underestimate these enemies. Their prowess in battle is quite good. Their prowess in social manipulation lacks from your night elven mastery." Both of them had a smile by the end.


End file.
